Speed is the essence for some of the more exciting players lining up at Rugby World Cup 2003.
The ability of the speed merchants to beat a man with sheer pace will be feature of the Tournament.
Here are a few names to keep in mind when considering the question of who will be the leading try scorer during the six week Tournament: South African wing Breyton Paulse, Australian Rugby League convert Wendell Sailor, Marika Vunibaka from Fiji, Romania’s Cristian Sauan, England’s Josh Lewsey, Shane Williams of Wales, All Black Doug Howlett and his wing partner Joe Rokocoko, Chris Paterson from Scotland, Ireland's Denis Hickie and Aurélien Rougerie of France.
All of these players have the ability to find another gear when searching for holes in opposition defences, and all play on the wing except for England’s Lewsey, who is a full back.
The speedsters:
Breyton Paulse
At just 175cm and 79kg Breyton Paulse looks too small to be an international rugby player, but a combination of talent and a capacity for scoring tries from nothing have silenced any negatives concerning his size or lack of it.
A hat trick and man of the match award on his debut in the 74-3 defeat of Italy at Telkom Park in Port Elizabeth on 12 June 1999 set Paulse on course to be named South African Rugby Player of the Year in 2000.
At 27 years of age, the former schoolboy champion 200 and 400 metres runner has 16 tries from 39 Tests.
Wendell Sailor
Speed is not the only weapon former Rugby League international Wendell Sailor has in his attacking armoury. At 191cm and 106kg Sailor has the power of a Number 8 with the pace of a wing, invariably beating the first tackle.
This pace and power served Sailor well in the 13 man game, scoring 110 times in 189 games for the Brisbane Broncos during eight seasons in the National Rugby League competition before switching codes.
Sailor made his Wallaby debut against France in Melbourne in the 2002 season and toured Argentina and Europe in the Northern hemisphere season.
Back in Australia, 2003 has been his best year to date, scoring a double, including one 100 metre effort, in the 30-10 win over Wales at Telstra Stadium in Sydney on 14 June and two tries against England and the All Blacks, taking the ball at first receiver from right field lineout win on the 22 metre line.
Cristian Sauan
Cristian Sauan first played international rugby for Romania against Georgia in 1997. In the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Sauan scored in the 44-14 loss to Ireland in the Group E match at Lansdowne Road on 15 October.
He currently plays on the wing for Italian club Rugby Rovigo, where his speed and ability to beat a man has kept him in front of the Romanian selectors.
Sauan played in all Romania’s qualifying matches for Rugby World Cup 2003, scoring a wonderful try against Spain in the 31-6 defeat of Spain in Madrid on 9 March.
Josh Lewsey
Josh Lewsey was a star on the rugby sevens circuit long before he played a full international for England. He has the speed to exploit the wide open spaces of sevens.
Lewsey made a big impact against Italy in the 2002 Six Nations, scoring after just two minutes and again on 15 minutes, this time throwing an audacious dummy on half way that left the Italian defence wondering where he had gone.
Marika Vunibaka
Marika Vunibaka, like England’s Josh Lewsey, has an extensive rugby sevens pedigree. Like the rest of this list of Rugby World Cup speedsters, Vunibaka is almost unstoppable at full pace, finishing the 1997 IRB Sevens World Cup as the leading try scorer.
Impartial judges rate Vunibaka as the fastest man in the game and his 21 tries in 24 games for the consistently excellent Canterbury Crusaders in the Super 12 is testament to this.
Vunibaka once scored seven tries in one game for Leicester against Cambridge University in 1997.
During the 1999 Rugby World Cup Vunibaka scored a brilliant solo try in Fiji’s important 48-22 defeat of Canada at Bordeaux on 9 October.
Doug Howlett
Times as a schoolboy sprinter suggest All Black wing Doug Howlett could have turned his hand to Olympic sprinting had the rugby bug not bitten him.
Opponents who have watched the back of the number 14 streaking toward the try line wish he had chosen to build on the promising 10.8 second best time over 100 metres rather than torment defences from Sydney to Montevideo.
With 24 tries from 31 Tests Howlett is well on his way to becoming an All Black great. A productive Rugby World Cup and a New Zealand win might seal the deal.
If his two try effort in the 21-17 Bledisloe Cup win over Australia in Auckland is anything to go by Howlett has the form to make Rugby World Cup 2003 a success.